Marina Beach

In an earlier post I used the comparison that Chennai was New Jersey to Bangalore's New York. This wounded the hometown pride of several of my friends and coworkers from the Garden State and for that I am truly sorry.

Sorry that I have to do it again that is!
Today we went to the beach as part of a sightseeing tour. It was a both strange and familiar. I'll walk through the li'l adventure and you tell me if it reminds you of the home of Asbury Park.

We wanted to go to Fort George and maybe some shopping nearby. The Fort was kind of a dud. We weren't very interested in the churches and stuff around that our driver Money was trying to show us. But Marina Beach had some livelt interest. Take us back there, please!

Money relectanly drove us toward the beach, taking detours to show us other buildings along the way. At length we arrived, but he drove away from the action. No, no, Money- take us over there by all the vendors and stuff! Money complied but when he dropped us off he gave us a stern warning: "Be careful. Danger. Very Very."

It didn't seem dangerous. Just another beach boardwalk with vendors, families, kids, games and craziness. The game above is the traditional Pop-the-Balloon game. Except that they are using real BB guns and the only prize seemed to be the act of shooting a gun. Below is a giant robot music listening booth. Listen to music from a giant robot, only 10 paisa!

Money's warning disturbed us and we kept a close eye on our wallets and cameras, especially when we started down the crowded corridor of stands on the beach that headed down towards the water. There were enough young men in groups staring at us to make you think about it, but it still seemed fine.

Then we saw the sign that told us that about 1600 people died on the beach every year. Actually, verbatim the sign says:

This sea area is so dangerous. Don't take bath here...This year, more persons lost their lives while taking bath here in the sea. Avoid taking bath here and save your lives.

Then is helpfully breaks down the stats with a chart that tells you the ages and origins of the dead. It was mostly youths from Chennai. Was this what Money was warning us about? Not to swim here? We weren't dressed to swim, but then neither was anyone else here and there was evidence they had been in the water.

We walked down the sandy path, browsing the wares and people watching. A vendor started barking, touting his wares and Val commented he would fit right in in New Jersey. Hmm. There were some strange foods I wanted to try, but in the heat I didn't dare. But I'm curious what Boost Horlicks are.

After the beach we went to a popular shopping plaza and some other stops, but we liked the beach. It's good to go where the locals are going and see a little of how they live. Even if some of it isn't pretty.

So there you have it: a boardwalk, a vague undercurrent of danger and excitement, music, games, food and fun on the seaside and guys who would fit right in in New Jersey. Case closed!

Vandalur & Dead End Shopping

Saturday we went to the Vandalur zoo. It was a sprawling affair with mostly-open air natural-style enclosures. The first thing we did was hop on one of those Jurassic Park buses and go see the lions. It was billed as a Lion Safari, but it was more like let's-drive-up-the-driveway-of-the-lion-area-and-then-turn-around-and-go-back. It lasted about 5 minutes.
But there were some close-up views, even though they were obstructed by the jostling humanity on the bus and the chicken wire and bars on the windows.


And some unusual activity.


After the lions, the driver dropped us off the middle of the park. It's made of a series of long, looping roads. We looked at the signs trying to figure out where to go, but they lacked the You Are Here legend and were mostly in Tamil. In the end, we picked a direction and headed off.

There were big cats - white tigers, panthers and jaguars. The walk was decent and there was enough shade to make things bareable, though by the end I needed a time out at the snack station. We also saw some birds, hippos and elephants, giraffes, zebras- the usual zoo stuff.

Along the way our party crossed paths with a Muslim Girl's School on an outing. One thing about Indians that we've noticed; they don't mind staring at you. You expect that when you catch someone staring at you, they will look away. Not here, they just keep staring. With these girls I'd smile and wave or say something; they just kept staring in stony silence. We were more interesting than the exhibits to some of them.


Perhaps it seemed like there was an element of disapproval from the Muslim girls. Not so with the young boys. They came up and stared, when I turned to acknowledge them, they were delighted. It was like when the monkey in the cage sees you back. They saluted and were of course happy to get the horns out for snaps. I've really enjoyed the kids on these trips.


Later in the day we tried to go shopping. We'd been blanked so far by the other shopping areas so we had high hopes for the new places our counterparts had recommended. Bangalore had so much great shopping we foolishly assumed Chennai would be the same. We struck out again.

We have pretty much given up on finding good shopping times here. Still, it was long, active day. Although we had had plans to visit some of the nightlife, we ended up calling it an early night. Tick tock, Chennai, only a few days left...

The End of Octopus Paul

The Royal Meridien Hotel has not treated us like kings.
They have done several very rude things that beggar comprehension.
For the most part, we have made few friends here among the staff. That's kind of unusual for long stays like this.

Chef William is the exception.
He's a big, happy Chinese guy whose favorite thing is to come in beside you and put his head next to yours as though he was posing for a picture. He's always beaming and acting astounded and happy that you are having a nice meal. He likes to send little treats and surprises over to our table to see what we think of them.
One day Mike asked him about the South Indian coffee. They make it by mixing a thick coffee syrup with steamed milk. Often they do it at the table so you can have them adjust the strength. Delicious, but how do you make the syrup? Mike asked Chef and he brought out the coffee maker and explained how it works. We never would have figured it out on our own; the brewer looks nothing like a Western coffee maker. Val and Jona went out and bought them following William's help.
On one of the first weekends, Mike and Jona had dumplings at the buffet that they raved about. Since Chef was always ready to whip us up some goodies, I asked for a some. He was a bit crestfallen; they could not be prepared immediately, but if we came back tomorrow night he would make a special dinner just for us. It turned out to be a multi-course dim sum feast. A delicious and welcome change of pace from rice.
During the meal we told him that Mike and Jona were leaving soon. Chef seemed a bit broken-hearted to lose such dear friends but took comfort in the idea that he could make us another special dinner; cooked at our table around the grill. Sure, Chef, but we can't do dinner, we work at night. Chef decides to break custom and do it as lunch.


It was a great lunch, even though it was embarassingly large. There was a salad and then a veggie course followed by shrimp, chicken, fish, beef, octopus, rice, soup and desert courses.
Now, the octopus was the star of the show. Chef took great delight in revealing it. "Oooh" he would laugh "No more World Cup! Octopus Paul work all done! Now we eat him!"

He cooked it for a long time. As you see here he cooked it intact on the grill. Paul had been marinating a while and be the time Chef William declared him finished he was amazingly tender. Not the usual octopus snap you get, but firm, yet giving. Very flavorful.

At this point, Chef William could cook us pretty much anything he wants. Since then he's come over to us at lunch a couple times and cooked us whatever he had in mind. Steamed ginger fish, udon, that sort of thing. All better than the merely-functional buffet. Now this is the test. Chef William told us that he has a once-in-a-lifetime treat and did we want it? Sure, Chef, we'll eat whatever you put in front of us.

Ok, the course is silkworm.

Hmmmm. We want to, but our brains rebel. Tomorow night is the night we can have them. Will we be brave and do it? Time will tell....

Mike Mhley, the Universe is Calling

This is Mike Mhley.

I've known him for a long time and have spent two months in India with him on two separate trips this year.

He's been a good travelling companion. Quick-witted, and even-tempered, he's been a great source of humor and a calming perspective during some trying times.

For example, he got off a plane the first trip and slid straight into hectic shopping situations on Brigade road without batting an eye. It took most of us several days to get aclimated; Mike did it within hours and was cracking jokes right away.

When things changed and we needed him to do different things, he did them without complaining and got it done.

And he has a way of making you like him. The girls in every trip have fallen in love with him and titter and laugh when he goes by. Here he charms a goat into posing for pictures. Incidentally, the shirt he's wearing declares that "Vegas is for Pussies".



Mike believes in the book The Secret. I don't really understand it, but basically the book tells how you put positive wishes out into the Universe and they are granted. When you fret and are negative, the things you worry about come to pass as well. It has something to do with electricity and maybe G0d and karma. We would joke about; "Oh Universe, please help me out here." or when something goes right "Thank you, Universe."


Well the Universe is taking in Mikey in a different direction and I'm thinking about him today.


I don't really believe that Things Happen For a Reason and stuff like that, but I do have faith that people can bounce and change doesn't have to be bad, even if it is often painful. Mike has skills, talent and puts love into what he does. The Universe is taking him somewhere and I'm just glad that it brought him into my orbit for a little while. I've learned from him and enjoyed his company.

Thanks, Universe.

At Loose Ends

Today is Mike and Jona's last full work day. We're sad to see them go, and it throws the reality of the timeline into sharp focus. As the end of this trip approaches we get restless. The work mission has some real challenges, but there is only so much you can do. You get anxious, wanting you trip to be an unqualified success.

To distract myself in the few minutes I have to myself, here are some snaps.
Dan, this one's for you:
This guy is Sathya Sai Baba. He and his previous incarnation Shri Sai Baba are very popular here. Well, at least Shri Sai Baba is. In Bangalore Ganesh was on every dashboard. Here it's Sai Baba. Sai Baba was a real-life guy who became a saint around the turn of the century. He combines Hindu and Muslim elements into his teaching.
The other guy, with the huge afro is his reincarnation.
Or maybe he's just a con man who knows some magic tricks and founded a charity organization.
Either way, he has a fun look and his iconic I Dunno shrug on a postcard gave us a lot of laughs in Bangalore. We'd be like: "When will this deliverable be ready?" Shrug. I dunno. "Will the internet actually work today?" I dunno. I'm usually sort of amused when he turns up.


Here's a coconut juice vendor in action. I bought a drink from him, He whacks it open with the cruel machete and then plops in this frail little straw. The cute, slim bendy straw potruding from the bulky husk of the coconut seems incongruent. The milk was tasty, if somewhat warmer than I had hoped for.

These are just a couple of old dudes I thought were fun. We have questions about the skirt-style wrap they wear. What is it called? Isw it worn by a specific set of people? How come some are plaid and some white? It seems to be looped under and then around- how do you tie one?

While in T Nagar a guy wearing one came up to me and Mike in the shade. He was friendly so we quized him on the subject. His English wasn't great and of course we have no Tamil so all we could really get out of it was that it was a very cool, comfortable outfit to wear and that it was made of cotton. Fair enough. Maybe I'll get one and bathrobe around the house in it.

Ah well. That's all for this time, kids. Next I think we may meet some of the people and have to begin saying some goodbyes.

Sunday Shopping

This is the Thagaraya Nagar shopping district and the site of the densest non-event crowd I've ever been in. The sheer volume of human activity makes New York look quaintly staid. These are just people shopping, not seeing a ballgame or show or something, just out for a Sunday Stroll and some shopping. They were buying socks and such. This isn't a sale or anything, just a regular day.
T. Nagar, as the locals call it, is made up of all kinds of shops: large 7-story superstores, tiny hole-in-the-wall nooks, street stands, and winding, cramped warrens of improvised covered stands leading in and out of actual buildings. We tended not to like this last sort as well because it became disorienting and easy to end up turned around on the wrong street. And it's not easy to recover lost distance in T Nagar. Even in the stores you have to use this slow shuffling gait. You don't want to go blocks in the wrong direction in this heat.


We saw lots of improvisation that made us smile. This guy is a bicycle coffee vendor. He has giant bags of biscuits and other supplies strapped to the front. He is pouring the dense South Indian coffee syrup into a small plastic cup. Next, he'll dispense hot steamed milk from the spigot on the side of the metal drum strapped to the back of the back. Viola~ coffee to go for only a few rupees, please.
This is an outdoor stall. There were hundreds of these, but good luck finding anything to fit our big, Western bodies. Most things I couldn't get over my shoulders, never mind the rest of me. Val looked hard for tops, but in the end couldn't find what she wanted in the right color. All this shopping and we came up blank.

It was past lunch and I was eyeing a samosa stand when Jona and Mike hollered for me to come over. The gentleman above had come out of his store carrying a melon. It was painted with spots and had a burning swath of camphor on the top. He waved it in the air in a series of circular gestures. Some sort of puja. He dumps the camphor in front of the store (you see the still-burning flame there on the left) and then raises the melon over his head and smashes it down on the ground with great gusto.

Next he finds some coconuts and starts smashing those, too. We've seen that at temples before, as it is fairly common. The signifigance I think is about humbling yourself before god. No one in the street is paying it much attention. In fact, the weird American taking photos of it seems more interesting to most of them. After the shopkeep smashes three he leaves the camphor burnng in front of his store and heads inside. A young girl runs around picking up the coconut pieces, apparently to eat. Later in the day we saw a number of smashed melons scattered around the streets, so I guess this was fairly common.

We had pressed through a lot of distance at this point and the heat was making me want to duck into a shop for a cool drink of water. At length and after an exciting road crossing we find a place. A man ushers us toward the back room where a hand-made sign reads AC Room. It seems odd, but we go in and find ourselves alone in a separate (air-conditioned) dining room. Were things pricier there? The rest of the place was packed. Waiters without much English come over to take our order, sure of a big payday. We aren't hungry, though. We just want some bottled waters and maybe a snack. I see ootapam on the menu and order an onion one.

Ootapam is simiar to dosa; it's basically a thick rice batter pancake which may have something else cooked in. I like the onion, but tomato is ok too. They serve it with chutneys and sambar, which is the tasty veggie lentil stew you dip it in. The one we got here was served on a banana leaf and had some spices over the top as well. Masala maybe?

Of course they bring four instead of one. No worries, though as four dishes and four large bottled waters end up costing about $2.50.

This guy is pulping sugar cane to make a refreshing drink. See the pot below? I've had this before and it's good, but I think the best part is the cool machine they use to make it. If it came in bottles I don't think I'd bother. As long as I'm on the topic, we've been enjoying the fresh lime soda of course but ginger beer is also popular here. It's tasty, but the sharpness catches the American palette of gaurd at first.

The one shopping item I saw for the first time here was wigs and hair extensions. There were stalls for it and street vendors like the woman below. Hair dying is very popular as well. We see very little salt and pepper in the uniformly black heads of hair at work and some of the crew teased one of their counterparts for coloring his hair. We see less henna'd Muslims here. It tends to be more Christian - oh and Sai Baba is everywhere. I'll have to blog about this later.

And of course with that many people, there were beggars. Several of them laid on the ground and pulled themselves along with their legs folded like this. Seeing more than one in the same pose made we wonder what it indicated. Whatever it was, we dropped coin in the cup. The hawkers weren't as bad today, perhaps because there were so many people they just couldn't follow you along.

Overall, I found the crowds at T. Nagar more exciting and fun than troublesome. If I had to do real shopping there instead of mostly people-watching, my patience might wear thin. But, again: that's the most striking thing. Not that there are a million people crammed togther, it's that there are a million people crammed together and getting along with each other. The calm acceptance vibe was striking even as cars and motorcycles push through these insane crowds. Not that it was easy; we all went home and slept afterwards, just that it was astounding. Another amazing sight in India.

Chennai Fashions

Last night we went to a fashion show in the hotel. It's fashion week here in fashionable Chennai and the hotel has been abuzz with unusual activity. The staff wanted to give us free tickets and we didn't want to miss the chance to participate in some cultural activities.
And, I just need to say that this was a long, brutal work week. Lots of long hours and frustrating situations. And remind me to tell you about the fire drill. Anyway - we were ready for a little diversion.
So, a bit before the appointed hour we show up to get our tickets. But of course this task takes three helpers who run around and finally inform us that the show is at 6:30, not 6. No, wait, 7. Yeah, that's it. So we go down to the function room around 7 and nothing's doing. It ends up starting around 7:30.
The function room is full of booths by the sponsors failing to garner interest from the crowd milling around.
Mostly it was people like this dude:


Except he was one of the only other Westerners. Here he is looking happy about a foor massage that was somehow sponsored by TaTa brand water. I know, but just roll with it.
The other people waiting around seemed mostly like people's mothers and the occassional hipster type:

So, eventually the show starts and they let us in. Being VIPs of the hotel, we go to the front row and sit in seats reserved for the hotel. But then some jerky guy comes up and shoos us out of them and makes us sit in -- get this -- the Second Row! I'm scandalized by this and am beginning to be sour on the event. It was a lot of waiting, the usual people pushing you and now this guy was a jerk about how he did it. He wasn't gracious and this is like the fourth jerky thing the hotel has done to us.

Then the show starts. It's kind of amusing. One girl loses her shoes, the models are wearing these weird flowers and bees on their heads and keep doing all these corny moves as they pass each other on the catwalk. Like pantomiming "call me" and high-fiving.

The whole thing is over in about twenty minutes. I didn't really care for the clothes on display but it was kind of a hoot. I'd never been to anything like that and it was another side of India that we got to see. Well worth the wait and the price of free tickets.

Hawkers and Beggars

I wanted to take a second out from the travelouge and talk about an issue we've seen more of this time than last: hawkers and beggars. Hawkers are the street people who come up to you offering you junk for sale. Today for example it was a mother and child selling small boxes of Q-Tips. They tend to be relentless and troublesome.

The only thing beggars are selling is a little feeling of charity. Or perhaps more honestly, they are selling the service of getting rid of themselves by going away. Maybe hawkers are selling that, too.

We see a lot of both, but it was worse in Chennai and Dehli than it ever was in Bangalore.

They tell you in the books that you should buy from hawkers and not give to beggars. The idea is that the hawkers are one step up from the beggars. Keeping them employed keeps them out of real dire circumstances. This logic makes sense, but when a leper with no legs rolls up to you it's hard not to feel that dropping a couple bucks would really help this guy out.

This is a girl in Dehli that was selling beads. No one wanted beads, but the kid was charming as heck. We rebuffed her but she hung around and when Val mentioned she needed an ATM the girl sprung into action, directing us to the nearest one. That one was out of order, as was the next one, but the kid was resourceful and found another and then another, finally locating a functioning one. The kid beamed with pride when madam finally got her money and exclaimed "Madam has gotten it!". Of course we bought beads from her afterwards, she was a joy.

But meanwhile, this woman was there at the same time, drunk and grunting at us. Her kid was inert and didn't look too healthy. She kept repeating the same incomprehensible syllables and making the food gesture. She clearly needed help but she didn't get any from us.

Is that bad?

Stopped at a stoplight late at night we saw a family under a bridge in Dehli with newborn. There must have been four kids there of varying ages living on a piece of cardboard. The mother saw the light change and shoo'd her eldest over to our car to pound on the window and beg for change. It was a terrible sight. But we didn't roll the window down.

I don't have a solution, even thinking about it makes me feel selfish and shallow. Mike says that you can't help them and that they need to help themselves; he says that if you give them money they just stay beggars. I'm a softer touch, but even I've gotten more defensive about it. There are reactions on several levels; you feel bad about their situation, angry that they are bothering you relentlessly, guilty that you have so much and they so little, frustrated that you can't do anything about it, unsure what they will do next.

I read in a book that the concept of karma helps out here. That the beggar's karma is to beg and you can't change that so you have to accept it. At the time, this seemed like a convenient way to justify not doing anything to help and blaming the situation on events in some unseen past life. But as I think about it after getting just a small taste of the situation, I warm to the idea some. The problem we have with beggars if we are really honest is that they make us feel uncomfortable. That's our problem. If you can really let go of the defensive frustration and not be angry at them for doing what their situation requires it would be easier to accept.

We're going back to the shopping district in Chennai tomorrow where we are sure to see beggars and hawkers. I am going to try to view them with calm and acceptance. We'll see how it goes.

Mahabalipuram: The Shore Temple

These events took place Sunday, July 4th. We are in Mahabalipuram winding down a day of adventure visiting temples, shrines and oddities built by the Pavalla kings in the 7th century.


This is the Shore Temple. The pass we bought back at the Five Brothers got us in here as well. The temple is sandwiched into a park between two waterfront stallwarts: the fishing village and the tourist town.

The fishing community was on the left, tourist beach on the right. It was amusing how similar this was to our hometown versions. Vendors sold ice cream and beach balls. Kids ran around in groups, playing and screaming. There were even carnival rides. You can see the tourist beach in the background below. It might have been fun to hang out there a bit, but we were on an agenda and were actually fading a bit by this point. The sun was intense, but after Agra we had a little bit of tolerance to it built up.

So, it terms of the temple, it's the usual biggies, Shiva, Durga and Vishnu. And look at all the bulls. Is it Nandi or just an ordinary cow? Not sure. The scaffolding and such that you see is because the salt air takes a toll and they need to do repairs regularly.
Below you see where the Shivalinga was. It was switched out later with a Ganesh I believe, but I'm not clear on the reasons.
Now this temple was a nice cap to the trip, it was breezy enough and pleasantly located. We enjoyed the diversion and learning about the history and culture. It was a great trip.
But getting in and out of these places we were bombarded by touts, beggars and hawkers in a way that we never were in Bangalore. Not surprising I guess, but perhaps worth discussing next time.